- Gregory Solman

LOS ANGELES MySpace Music breaks its first outdoor campaign today in New York's Times Square and on the Sunset strip here, according to Angela Courtin, svp, marketing, entertainment and content.

The first executions of the artist-centered campaign, which will run for the next four to six weeks, feature three musical acts with MySpace pages and "friends," the Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne and MIA, Courtin said.

The first round of ads represent the artists as they might appear on a MySpace Music pages (the site is expected to launch in the next few weeks).

Headlines include "Songs We Can Agree On" for the Jonas Brothers and "Beats That Stick With Me" for Lil Wayne. Copy lists artist song endorsements and other influential performers.

MySpace Music will permit users to aggregate playlists of free, ad-sponsored streaming music and share the lists with others. "The ads speak to MySpace as a social portal," Courtin said. "We're expanding on that brand proposition."

"The phased approach is to first introduce the functionality of display, playlists and sharing," Courtin said. "The creative comes out of an artist-centric concept, that understanding music is in our DNA."

Courtin said the first three acts were chosen for how they cover the musical waterfront, with the Jonas Brothers (more than 1 million friends) representing a Disney-fan age, active blogging force; MIA, with 350,000 friends, "hugely popular with the independent music lover and influencers"; and Lil Wayne (950,000 friends), popular with the urban contemporary crowd.

The outdoor was developed in-house with the help of undisclosed freelance creative, said Courtin, who came to MySpace 10 weeks ago from MTV; she declined to reveal any agency relationships.

Recently, the company announced that major sponsors of the enterprise include McDonald's, Toyota, State Farm and Sony Pictures.